For years, the lovely village of Poynton, south east of Manchester, has been blighted by the torrent of traffic streaming through the village centre. I would suggest this problem is symptomatic of many places in the UK, and, if so, then the solution that has been applied in Poynton takes on a much wider significance than just one junction in one village.

The major aspect of this solution seems to be to slow the traffic down to a human scale, which then enables the streets to be re-humanised. It’s an interesting approach.

The council and street designers involved here deserve much credit for taking the ‘bull’ by the horns in seeking to tame it. From a cycling point of view, although I didn’t notice any specific cycleways as such, it seems people walking and people cycling all benefit from a slower, more civilised flow of traffic. I think what the Poynton Regeneration project shows is that this thinking is definitely part of the wider solution our towns and cities need. It’s one step in the right direction. See what you think: